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If you’re a fan of Nightmare Before Christmas, this glow-in-the-dark Nightmare Before Christmas DIY plaque is the perfect decor for you!
The Nightmare Before Christmas DIY Wood Plaque
First off, the tool that made this project easy was my Cricut Explore Air 2. It seriously makes crafting so much fun! I’ve been a crafting fiend since I got mine last year. I also used the stencil vinyl and transfer tape.
I found this image on Etsy and I had to snag it. When you purchase something from Etsy, be sure that it has SVG files and PNG in order to use them in Design Space.
And have fun browsing! Etsy has so many great options, I had the hardest time narrowing it down.
Once you have the image in Design Space the way you would like it, put the stencil vinyl down on the mat so it’s ready to cut.
Weeding is sometimes the hardest party for me when it comes to using vinyl. Thankfully, this image wasn’t too hard. There are those tiny little lines that proved a little difficult. The white space you see in the picture is where I weeded the vinyl out and will be the space that is painted black. Once it was weeded, I used the transfer tape and got it ready to place on the wood.
Before putting the vinyl on, the wood needs to be prepared. I purchased this circle plank from The Wood Connection, my favorite place to find wood projects. They do ship all over so if you see something you like, it can be yours whether you live in Utah or not! After sanding it well, I applied a couple of layers of white paint and then a layer of Glow-In-The-Dark paint over the top of it. I wanted the plaque to still look good during the day time and that’s why I painted it white. The Glow-In-The-Dark medium is not very opaque and works well when another color is underneath.
Once it was dry and I had the vinyl transferred to the transfer tape, I applied the vinyl to the wood. I’ll be honest when I say that it was not an easy task! The vinyl did not want to stick and it took a little bit of a fight to keep it down.
I did my best to lightly begin applying the black paint but soon gave up. I was so worried the paint would bleed over the lines without the vinyl sticking very well. I had another thought while working with it… why not try a sharpie marker? They work so well for crafting! I decided to try it on a small portion of the plaque and found it to be so much easier. I outlined around the stencil and then removed it. I filled in the blank spots with the marker once I removed the stencil.
It just goes to show that there is always more than one way to do something! In hindsight, I could have taped the stencil down with masking tape and that may have worked better. Next time, right?
In the end, I had a great piece of decor that is perfect for Halloween.
It’s hard to capture how things look in the dark but here’s my attempt. It really does look fabulous once the light goes away!
